Tens of thousands protest amnesty for Catalan separatists in Madrid

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - At least 170,000 protesters filled the streets of downtown Madrid on Saturday in another massive protest against amnesty for Catalan separatists, according to government figures.

Pedro Sanchez was re-elected prime minister and tasked with forming a government after winning majority support in Spain’s parliament on Thursday. But his political victory only came after he conceded to the demand to grant amnesty for those facing charges for their role in the Catalan separatist movement from 2012 until November 2023.

The deal has become extremely polarizing in Spain, triggering several massive protests and nightly rioting.

A recent poll by Invymark for broadcaster La Sexta suggests that 52% of Spaniards support amnesty, while 48% are against it. In Catalonia, the support was stronger, with 77.7% backing it and 22.3% against it.

Organizers say nearly 1 million people joined Saturday’s protest, which was attended by both the mainstream conservative Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo as well as Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right party Vox.

“We are in a very complicated moment in our democracy,” Feijoo told the media, slamming the deal as “fraudulent and humiliating.”

“In this protest, we are asking leaders not to put up walls, not to risk coexistence and not to provoke tension,” he said.

Abascal said a coup had already begun with Sanchez’s election, but that it will not be over until the amnesty law is passed.

“We cannot say we’ve lost the battle yet, we have to keep resisting with sustained social mobilization,” he said.

Although Saturday’s march was branded as a protest against amnesty, members of Spain’s Socialist Party, which will form a coalition government with the far-left Sumar, question its true motivations.

“This isn’t for amnesty. It’s because they can’t accept that the social majority opted for a progressive government,” Socialist spokesperson Patxi Lopez told media in the Basque Country.

After the larger protest in downtown Madrid, some protesters moved toward the official residence of Spain’s prime minister, but police did not allow them to get close.

Many of them have moved to the Socialist Party headquarters, where police are prepared for yet another night of violent clashes with far-right protesters.